A big win for curling fans Future looking bright

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Cathy Overton­ Clapham (left) and teammate Breanne Meakin watch opponent Chelsea Carey call a shot during the Manitoba Lotteries Women’s Curling Classic.

The victors were crowned on the ice, but the biggest winners to emerge Monday night at the conclusion of the two richest bonspiels in Manitoba this winter were the curling fans of this province.

Because what emerged from Chelsea Carey's victory in the final of the Manitoba Lotteries Women's Curling Classic and Mike McEwen's win in the final of the Canad Inns Prairie Classic is that for the first time in a very, very long time, Manitoba curling finally appears to have some depth -- and some new young blood capable of competing on a national and international level.

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Mike McEwen (above) made relatively short work of Jeff Stoughton, dumping the defending Manitoba men's champion 6-3. (RUTH.BONNEVILLE@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

Let's begin with Carey's 7-3 win in an all-Winnipeg final against Cathy Overton-Clapham that saw the two local foursomes the last ones standing at an event that attracted an international field to Fort Rouge Curling Club that was as least as good as any that will be assembled anywhere in Canada this year.

Consider this: In advancing to the final last night, Carey and Overton-Claphan had outlasted the reigning Olympic silver medallist Cheryl Bernard; the reigning Canadian champion in Jennifer Jones; the 2009 world champion in China's Bingyu Wang; and almost every major competitive team on the women's World Curling Tour.

The last Winnipeg team to win the prestigious Fort Rouge event was Jennifer Jones back in 2005 and the fact Jones was nowhere to be seen last night -- she had a late-end meltdown in the quarterfinals against Saskatchewan's Stefanie Lawton earlier in the day -- is suggestive of a depth in the Manitoba's women's game that has been sorely lacking in a province where there has been Jones, and not much else, for years now.

Indeed, the very idea that there would be two Winnipeg teams in the final of the richest bonspiel in Manitoba this year and neither would be named Jones would have been all but unthinkable just a few days ago.

For Carey, it was a coming-out party for a team that has added two-time Manitoba women's runner-up Kristy Jenion at third.

Apart, Carey and Jenion have skipped middle-of-the-road teams the past few years. But together, the new back end -- combined with a hard-working front end of Kristen Foster and Lindsay Titheridge -- appear to be more than the sum of their parts.

"Kristy and I joining up sort of eliminated one team, but it was two teams that weren't quite getting where we needed to go," Carey said. "And an all-Winnipeg final was so neat... (women's curling in Manitoba) is definitely deeper than it has been in the past."

And for Overton-Clapham, even the loss was a vindication of sorts for a curler who won the last three Canadian women's titles with Jones, only to be abruptly fired last spring and find herself without a team.

Well, Overton-Clapham has a team now, all right. With junior Breanne Meakin at third and a front end that won the province with Jill Thurston last season in second Leslie Wilson and lead Raunora Westcott, Overton-Clapham advanced further this weekend than Jones did and has, in what was just the team's second-ever bonspiel, staked her claim as a new, old force in the women's game.

"We had a great weekend and what a big stepping stone for our team," Overton-Clapham said. "We've only played two weekends together and it was really important we get on a roll and get some confidence. And we've done that."

Meanwhile, out in Portage la Prairie, it was hard not to think that maybe a torch was being passed last night as Winnipeg's Mike McEwen made relatively short work of Jeff Stoughton, dumping the defending Manitoba men's champion 6-3.

With the victory, McEwen completed a perfect 7-0 run through a field in Portage that included former world champions in Stoughton and Ontario's Glenn Howard and international teams from Japan, the U.S. and China.

What's more, McEwen did it by winning the final over a man in Stoughton who: beat McEwen in the provincial men's final last winter; has won four of the last five Manitoba men's titles; and through whom this winter's provincial title will almost certainly travel once again.

"It feels really good to go undefeated through a WCT event," McEwen told Cathy Gauthier on Shaw-TV last night. "This is the first time we've done that and hopefully we can get used to doing things of that calibre."

Put it together and the future looked bright for everyone on a night that was very, very good for Manitoba curling.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 26, 2010 C1